Nightmare System 4 Hard Decision

They wore identical clothes resembling uniforms, and both were ready as soon as they saw him, having nocked their arrows and were both waiting for him to get close. He moved at a moderate speed to see what they could do, but as soon as the arrows were released, they travelled with incredible force and almost hit him. They weren't holding regular bows on their hands, his speed, however, had already exceeded what such low-level mobs could overcome. He steadied his breathing and moved with immense agility that is hard to follow with naked eyes.

More arrows were released one after another, but he dodged them all. h.e.l.l didn't want to spend time unnecessarily, his brother would die, so he got closer and closer, shooting them in close range. He would have a chance to miss if he tried to shoot from a distance, but he would be sure to hit them from 10-15 meters. Conversely, they couldn't efficiently use their bows at that distance. Quickly dispatching them, he took the bow and collected 50 arrows, strapping them onto his back. Archery could be ideal for him perhaps, he thought and opened the doors to the palace. h.e.l.l's time was running out, this was not good.

"f.u.c.k." He said. There were 20 more of these guys with various weapons, and he could see 15 more with bows and arrows on a platform 10 meters higher. Even if he could kill them all, this would take more time than he had. He also locked eyes with the imp standing on the throne, that one looked more like a human than the others and had a sharp glint hinting at his intelligence in his eyes.

"Welcome." The King spoke in a nonchalant manner. "I'll bury you here."

"Good luck doing that." h.e.l.l mumbled.

"Let's test your mettle first, shall we?" The King said as he signalled at 2 of the imps close to him to take action. One of them had a poleaxe while the other had twin blades. These imps wore different outfits to the ones outside, he saw there were 10-12 imps with different outfits in the room in total. Each one seemed to own a different weapon, he figured these were the veterans of these imps. But it didn't matter. As long as they failed to properly perceive his movements, every single one of them would die.

The one with poleaxe lunged ahead as the one with twin blades seemed like he would wait to find an opening. h.e.l.l promptly used the opening created by the large swing of the imp's poleaxe and his glaive found his throat as well. He thought it was the most efficient method to kill these things, he wasn't sure if the organs would be in different places, he could miss the heart. Since all he had was speed, a well-positioned attack would kill him as fast as he is killing them. He then continued onto the surprised twin-blade user. He saw the second imp was trying to block his attack, he thought it was out of instinct instead of a conscious decision. He had already swung the glaive, so it crashed against the twin blades of the imp. But since It landed onto his weapons with much speed and that the imp was still slightly unprepared. One of the blades of the unlucky imp lodged into his throat with the force generated, he also collapsed.

"I see." Imp King said, his eyes spitting fire. "You, and you." He signalled to two other imps, these seemed a lot bulkier. "You kill him." He said.

"He is testing my skills." h.e.l.l thought to himself. It probably was another minute since he entered this place already and there was no guarantee his brother had a full 15 minutes in the first place. He figured he had to end this after the next move. So he positioned the Imp King behind him, acting like he tried to parry the attack from one of the large imps and failed, this one had a war hammer, and got closer to the imp king, looking out for an attack from him. He looked to be sitting on his throne still with a smug look on his face.

"Let's see what happens when your enemies are also a bit faster." King said as he waved his hands, some spell was being cast. This was the perfect opportunity, it would be hard to kill everyone here anyway, so he jumped at the Imp King with all his speed along with the grenades the pins were pulled mere seconds ago. If only he could take him out first, everything would be fine.

"That's a stupid-" the Imp King was saying as he saw the grenades without pins. "Stop, are you gonna blow us both up?!" he tried to run away with a sword designed like a needle covering his right hand. Everything was happening so fast so he swung his sword at the upcoming enemy and it pierced one of his kidneys. "Hah! Idiot!" Imp King wanted to say as h.e.l.l pushed himself into the sword, his right hand held the King's head, carrying a string that holds the 5 remaining grenades he had.

"Too late for you." h.e.l.l said, in agony. "You'll die first." He added, even after some spell brought forth by the Imp King destroyed the side of his pierced kidney, which now had a gaping hole.

The grenades exploded as the King realized his death had come. It was so sudden, killing the Imp King almost instantly. h.e.l.l's right arm was nowhere to be seen, obliterated by the explosion, most of his body burnt up. The needle-like sword was somehow still stuck on what's left on his side, along with the Imp King's hand in it.

*Congratulations on defeating the King of the Imps*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

The system's notifications were the last thing I heard as he closed his eyes, leaving this world.

*Man of Cursed Spirit will be resurrected as a reward for defeating the boss before his death*

*The brother of Man of Cursed Spirit will be recovered as he survived the level*

*As a reward for completing the misfortune, the player will be awarded +5 stat points*

h.e.l.l opened his eyes to a text message, floating in that void again. He thought the system had let him die. "What a surprise." He thought and heard the system's voice again.

*Devourer has been activated*

*+200 Mana has been acquired*

*The spell "Rapid Move" has been learned*

*Rapid Move: 140 Mana for each use, allows the player to speed any one action by 5 times*

*Nightmare System Stage 1-Level 3 will continue next time the player sleeps*

*Items acquired: Glaive of Hans the Undying, Needle of the Imp King, Enchanted Bow, Enchanted Arrows (50)*

h.e.l.l opened his eyes again, feeling rested. He rushed to his brother's room, it was empty. "Right." He said, remembering the tracksuit he was wearing as the door to their apartment opened.

"h.e.l.lo, brother." Devlin said with a broken smile. He was a kind kid after all. h.e.l.l figured he was probably still remembering the dream. He hoped Devlin would remember nothing and go on with his life.

"h.e.l.lo, Devlin."

"Ah, I'm going to have to ask something." Said Devlin.

"Ask away."

"It will sound incredibly weird."

"Do ask."

"So I was jogging…" Devlin started and seemed embarra.s.sed, changing his demeanour. "I somehow fell asleep on one of the benches!" He quickly said.

"How the h.e.l.l did you manage that?"

"I guess I was really sleepy after an all-nighter."

"You pulled that all-nighter last week."

"I guess it has only just hit me. Not all of us can survive on a couple of hours of sleep and then stay awake for days like you." Devlin laughed, and added after a few seconds in a more serious manner: "Those nightmares you mentioned before…"

"Yeah?"

"How do you deal with them?"

"You just stop thinking about them." h.e.l.l said. This was better, he wouldn't pick that smaller wheel again. He couldn't risk it. "Why? Did the little, helpless kid had a bad dream?" h.e.l.l joked.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" I have to get to my school, get out of my room.

"I hate you so much." h.e.l.l said with a smirk.

"I hate you, too." Devlin replied with a smile.

"I'll get you some breakfast before you leave." h.e.l.l said and left.

"Okay." Devlin replied.

Devlin seemed slightly troubled, no matter how much he tried to be cheerful. He ate his breakfast. Complimented the skills of Chef h.e.l.l, and left for school.

h.e.l.l remembered the nightmares had tortured him immensely in his childhood as well. He actually had only managed to get through them as he created some unimaginably powerful heroes to protect himself while he slept. If the monsters were real, so were his heroes, he thought. Growing up to be independent and self-relying however, he forgot them all after a few years, and fought by himself in his dreams. He liked lucid dreaming in those nightmares, he didn't mind after a while. He would die in his dreams and then wake up for years to come. Those heroes seemed too childish and he didn't like to rely on anything else. He liked being strong, so he tried, and tried.

He was always fascinated by evil. When his grandmother told him he shouldn't say the name "djinn", because they would come and haunt him until he managed to get rid of them, he was so curious. h.e.l.l was only a 6-year-old boy then. Then his grandmother told him that especially if he said "that word" during nights or 40 times in a row, he was all the more likely to be haunted by them. She was so scared of them that she did not dare say "djinn". Even more than one could come to haunt him. Little h.e.l.l was excited and promised his grandmother he wouldn't say it again.

He waited that night until everyone was asleep, until it was midnight. He sat in the middle of his bed and closed his eyes, chanting. "Djinn, djinn, djinn…" 40 times in a row. He realized only recently that he truly was the reason of such nightmares of his. h.e.l.l remembered his mother calling him soon after he tried to summon djinns, it came from the living room. He went there and looked for her, even thinking he saw someone for a moment, but there was nothing when he turned on the lights, so he went back to sleep and didn't think of this again, even though the same thing would sometimes happen, waking him up from his sleep during nights, only to find out that there was no one there.

h.e.l.l laughed at himself, pouring some coffee, he hadn't realized he had caused himself to be haunted for 14 years! Only last year when he was talking to a superst.i.tious friend did she tell him "maybe that's why he always had nightmares". He hated the idea of being weak, especially mentally, and saw nightmares or any sort of trouble in life beneath him. He was a c.o.c.ky fellow, but that mentality was the only reason he hadn't gone insane by now. He would like to think his life was basically h.e.l.l right now, but he loved being able to get strong as such, too. The only problem was that his brother would be sad if he died and such sadness could possibly ruin his life, especially with his university entrance exams slowly creeping close. He tried to get to his room and back here with the coffee in his hand, as fast as he could. His movements quite literally created some wind in the kitchen and the frying pan fell down with the oil still in it.

"I mean, I really was incredibly fast just as I was so in the other place… but honestly, f.u.c.k this." h.e.l.l said. He had to get the oil out from the floor tiles now. It was quite annoying. He cleaned it, complaining under his breath doing it and then decided to leave the house for the day, going into the forest nearby. This was a rather small town and the foliage in the forest wasn't too dense, it was great for a jog or a walk, or for trying out his abilities. He would first check his stats.

Player: Man of Cursed Spirit

Age: 21

Occupation: Cursed Hunter

Level: 23

Stats

----------

Strength : 10

Defence : 10

Dexterity : 166

Mana : 220

Vitality : 10

Stamina : 10

Unused Stat Points: 55

Items: Gun of the Clairvoyant, Phone of the Clairvoyant, Glaive of Hans the Undying, Needle of the Imp King, Enchanted Bow, Enchanted Arrows (50)

"d.a.m.n, totally forgot about the items!" h.e.l.l exclaimed and rushed back to his room. He couldn't believe he forgot to check the new items. He saw his bed was fine with no items to be seen. He pulled the bed and saw the items under it this time. At least this was an improvement, he wouldn't want to stab himself to death while waking up with those in the bed. "What was it again?" He thought for a moment and then tried identifying the items one by one.

*Glaive of Hans the Undying: Made of the most durable stone in the Lyre Universe. It is forged for 15 years to be sharpened for the glaive. Attack+50*

*Needle of The Imp King: Imp King created this needle with magic to boost his power, even if it is broken or thrown away by its user, it will be restored in the hands of the user with the pre-determined command word. Piercing attack +70, Mana +20*

*Determine the codeword now?*

"Codeword, my a.s.s." h.e.l.l mumbled, he was never good with naming things.

*Codeword has been chosen as "My a.s.s"*

"Wait no, make the codeword something else!"

*Codeword for Needle of the Imp King has been changed to "Something else"*

"Jesus f.u.c.king Christ." h.e.l.l was sure the system was f.u.c.king with him somehow. "Change the codeword for Needle of the Imp King to "Imp Needle."

*Code word for Needle of the Imp King has been changed to "Imp Needle"*

"Good." h.e.l.l sighed in relief. He couldn't imagine how awful randomly summoning these weapons would be, not even mentioning how horrifyingly bad the name was.

*Enchanted Bow: This bow was enchanted by the King of the Imps, its attack power is directly related to the strength applied by the user. 1 Strength=+2 Attack*

*Enchanted Arrows: These arrows were enchanted by the King of the Imps, they double the damage output when used with the enchanted bow and create a force explosion focused on one point*

"Alright, this is actually good. Let's try it out." He said. "Imp Needle." He tried to summon it the same way he summoned the character page. It, unfortunately, didn't work that way. He said it in a faint voice, however, and it was suddenly in his hands again. He opened up his character page again, wondered maybe he should invest his current points into strength to efficiently use the bow. Raising his strength to 35 would let him deal 140 damage with the enchanted bow and arrows. He had to make a smart decision, he had to survive for his little brother after all.

"Ah, I know!" h.e.l.l exclaimed as he pointed his finger to himself. "Identify."

*Man of Cursed Spirit has been identified*